The Malediction of the Two
by DJ LAZA
Summary: Jack is haunted in his dreams by enemies of the past... Incomplete Please R & R
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original characters of Pirates of the Caribbean. They belong to their creator.

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1

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Trees. Leaves. The sound of footsteps in the muddy soil. The sound of branches crackling under forceful hands. A whisper. Another whisper.

"Where are we going?"

"I don't know. Shhhh."

"Where are we now?"

"Shut your mouth!"

Akimbo, tall and muscular, strode fiercely with a glow of hatred in his eye for anyone who would dare get in his way. His steps were long and smooth, his footprints in the muddy soil visibly perfect. The others had to walk at twice as quick of a pace just in order to even remotely keep up with his own. All at once, he stopped. The stop took the others so surprisingly that they almost bumped into him but none actually did, for they all knew that one bump would mean a long and painful death at Akimbo's very own bare hands. Akimbo looked out through the clearing they had come to on the mountain which they were climbing. He stared at the fine lines of the horizon as the others sweated and panted helplessly like dogs, being so tired from the climb.

Jack looked at Akimbo, only for a mere second, as he knew the penalties which came with rubbing this man the wrong way as any other of the members of his exhausted crew did. Then he stared off in the direction Akimbo was staring at, wondering what was so special with the view.

Finally, he spoke. "Well, what is it?"

Akimbo regarded the horizon for one last brief moment before turning to Jack, then proceeded. He stared at Jack coldly for some time, loathing the man just as he loathed every single person, animal and thing on the entire appalling world. Jack looked at him impatiently as he stared, wanting the whole thing just to be over with already. But he knew that would never really happen. Well, what he was currently doing as of now with Akimbo would be over, but not the real purpose. That would never be over.

The crew stood gathered up behind Jack, fearful of Akimbo. They didn't like the man one little bit. He had made them climb almost the entirety of the mountain with no breaks and that was unforgivable. Now there was a fine breeze blowing across the mountainside, turning all of the sweat on their bodies cold and causing them to shiver. They shivered as a result of the cold winds, and they shivered because of the lack of human feeling in Akimbo.

All of a sudden, Akimbo slowly raised one hand up to the sky. Jack watched it rise, wishing he'd just hurry up with it already. When Akimbo's hand was all the way up, he then pointed his index finger directly upward. He was pointing to the sky. Jack watched precariously. At first there was nothing. Then, in the distance a faint buzzing sound could be heard. It was growing louder and louder as the seconds passed by. The crew began to shiver and shake. Soon, they could not help it anymore and began whispering and ranting to eachother.

Akimbo stood tall and upright, finger still pointing to the sky. At once, the sky began to change color (or at least they thought). It was slowly turning a deathly black. And then the buzzing had become louder than before. Finally they all realized that the sky was not turning black, but it was thousands upon thousands of black flies coming their way. The buzzing became intolerable, crew members began clutching their ears and crying out frightened screams. All the while, Akimbo stood as though he were unaffected.

"Oh my god!"

"What's that!"

"Help!"

Jack looked up at the swarming flies in awe. "What the hell is this!" He asked, alarmed, not taking his eyes off of the mass of flies. The mass was so thick, the horizon which Akimbo had been staring at before was unable to be seen at all. The flies were like a giant black blanket.

The pattern of the flies swarming around the sky in front of them then began to change, began to grow neater. They looked... they looked almost as if they were spelling something out. And they were.

None of Jack's crew members were able to read and he had no idea if Akimbo possessed the skill. But as the flies flew into words, Jack took one last glance back at Akimbo and noticed that his expression had changed. Then he returned his gaze to the unbelievable nest of flies and saw the message they had for him. It was two words. And those two words, he would never forget for as long as he lived.

His eyes wide and his mouth open, he uttered a frail cry, "Sweet mother of God."


	2. Chapter 2

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2

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Nicole followed after Jack down the hall. They had returned to the Black Pearl and were leaving that horrid area with its horrid Akimbo for good soon. Hopefully.

"Jack, I know that it said something. Just tell me what it said."

Jack quickened his pace, hoping Nicole would just leave him alone about it. He never wanted to speak of it again.

"Jack."

Jack stopped and turned around to face Nicole. She offered him a smile and realized that even when he was angry, he still was as handsome as he always was. He tried to hold his frown at her, but seeing her bright blue eyes, her long, tangled mess of brown-blonde hair and then her smile was just too hard to combat against. He smiled back. "Nicole, it didn't say anything."

"Come on, Jack! I was there. I saw the way you gazed at it with that look of utter terror. I know it said something. I am, afterall, learning how to read, you know," she said, giving him one of her cutesy-utesy smiles that were exclusive to her mouth only.

"Aww, big girl's learning how to read. How adorable!" He coddled, pinching her cheeks.

"I _am_ a big girl! Just turned seventeen last week," Nicole said, pulling his hands off of her face.

"Seventeen? My, my, my... where does the time go? I mean, you're practically a woman!" Jack said, pondering on the whereabouts of the spent years.

Nicole shrugged. "I don't know about that, but I do know something else."

Jack came out of his pondering and looked at Nicole. "Oh really? And what's that?"

"That you can tell me what those terrible flies were trying to tell you."

Jack scoffed at her, then turned away and continued marching down the hall of the ship. "No such thing, young missy!" Nicole began going after him again, then gave up and watched as his figure receded further. "Case closed!" He called from the end of the hall, then took a left and disappeared. Nicole crossed her arms over her chest and let out a long exasperated sigh.


	3. Chapter 3

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3

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"Grandpapa!" Nicole called, running across the deck. She walked behind Mr. Gibbs, threw her arms around his middle and hugged him.

"Oof!" Gibbs exclaimed, feeling the air become knocked from out of his chest.

Nicole let go of him and moved so she was facing him. "Grandpapa, Jack is being mean to me."

Gibbs nodded thoughtfully at Nicole. "That's nice. Well, go run along now. Your grandpapa is very busy right now. I've got so much to do! I have to separate all 'o these here ropes and fold them up all pretty and such," Gibbs explained, holding up a large ball of rope for Nicole to see.

"Oh I see. Well, maybe I can help you?"

"That would be wonderful, dear!"

"No problem. I've got nothing better to do _now_..." She said, glancing scornfully behind her shoulder at the hall where she had just conversed with Jack. She had to know what those flies had spelled. She had not climbed up that awful mountain with the bunch of fools that were Jack's crew just so she would be left out of what held the entire meaning of the trip. She would find out. One way or another.

Nicole grabbed the ball of rope and tugged on one of the loose ends. The rope glided out from the rest smoothly and she put the ball down. Then she started on folding her rope up. Gibbs grabbed the ball and began tugging on a loose end, but he was not as successful as his granddaughter, and it took a slight struggle in order to free his selection. Eventually, though, it all turned out well enough.

As she was working on another piece of rope, Nicole saw Jack walk across the deck. She eyed him for a moment, then looked back at Gibbs. "May I be excused?" She asked hopefully.

Gibbs nodded and patted her on the back. "Sure, lassie. Have fun."

"Thanks, Grandpapa." She acknowledged with a kind kiss on the cheek, then ran off in the direction of Jack. He saw her coming and let out a long sigh of annoyance.

"Jack. Why won't you just tell me?"

"Did I not close this case previously? Because, clearly, I can distinctly remember saying 'Case closed'. _Dare you reopen the closed case_!" He asked, ridiculing.

"I'm going to find out. Just you wait and see, Jack Sparrow. I'm smarter than you think I am. I know how to find things out."

"Oh no! I'd better watch out then... perhaps you'll uncover my secret fetish for wearing women's undergarments!"

Nicole giggled. "Oh, Jack. I already knew that."

"Ha. Ha," Jack retorted, not amused. "You know, I'd really love to continue with this fascinating conversation, but I've got a leak in the hull to take care of that's really not going to fix itself. So, unless you don't want to leave this godforsaken island any time soon, you'll have to excuse me." He nodded graciously at her and then walked off, not even allowing time for a response.

Nicole scowled, then proceeded to her cabin. She was determined to devise a scheme that would allow her to know the meaning of the hike they had taken up in the mountains. And soon, she would.


	4. Chapter 4

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4

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Jack lay uncomfortably in his bed come night time. He had spent the remainder of the day yelling at his imbecile crew mates, trying to get them to fix the hole in the hull properly. They had completed the job after a few hours, but Jack was not sure of it's stability and predicted that it would fall apart sooner or later.

Sleep came to him slowly and uneasily that night. The first hour of his slumber had been black and empty, but later his waves of sleep began to turn into short, nonsensical dreams which he would forget as soon as a new one started. Following these short, strange dreams came an actual dream. Perhaps, more likely though, a _nightmare_.

It was a foggy night on the Pearl. Jack was standing at the railing, peering out into the mist of the twilight. The only sound was that of the waves of the ocean gently splashing on the hull of the ship. Jack looked up to the moon, noticing it was full that night. It was rather pretty, its milky yellow-white color. Then the silence was interrupted by the sound of creaking. Jack turned on his heels to see a skeleton at the opposite end of the deck. Jack only saw it for a second, but a second was already far too much. The moon reflected on its decomposing bones in a sickening glow. It began to lurch forward in his direction. Jack gasped and moved backward, trying to get as far apart from the monster as he could. But his footing had failed him and he stumbled. Before he knew it, he was over the rail of the Pearl. He was falling and falling into eternal blackness, arms flailing about, trying to catch hold of something. But there was nothing catch onto. He kept expecting the plunge into the dark, cold waters of the mysterious ocean but the splash was not coming, for he was no longer falling off of the side of the ship, but rather through the blackness of the unknown. He opened his mouth to let out a long scream but then realized, when no sound was coming out of his mouth, that it was useless. His mouth moved, but no sound was released.

Suddenly, there was a large thud and Jack landed on a hard surface. He sat in the dark for a few moments, trying to gather himself, then got up on his knees. He peered around in the darkness, but could see nothing, not even his own self. Then, as if planned, some hundred yards away, a small campfire lit and burned brightly.

Worn out from the fall, Jack slowly began to crawl towards the fire. When he had reached the fire, he basked in its warm glow and heated his cold, clammy body. He turned the palms of his hands upward and saw that they were all dirty from crawling on the ground to the fire.

He began wiping his hands on his clothing, then a strong gust of wind came and blew out the fire. A small whimper escaped from his lips as he sat there, wherever he was, in complete darkness. The fire then came alive again and he let out a long relieved breath. But he was only relieved for a moment, because when he looked up he saw that he was no longer alone. He was circled around the fire by a group of very savage looking beings. They were big, dirty and gritty and carried looks of hatred on their broad, disgusting faces.

They began forward, lurching and dragging their bodies in his direction. He could see some of them holding sharp blades and large stones in their hands. For reasons unknown, Jack looked away from the malevolence closing in on him and looked down at his upturned hands which he had just wiped off.

As he looked at his hands, he saw that they were still dirty and the wipe had done nothing. So he wiped them once more and looked at them again. But when he saw them they were still the same and he realized that it was not dirt on his hands, but ink inscriptions.

One hand had one word... the other hand had another... The same words the flies had spelled out for him on the mountain. Jack felt a wave of nausea come over him and it was becoming hard for him to keep balance. He swayed back and forth, then collapsed on his back on the ground. As his back hit the ground, he began falling in the tunnel of nothingness once more. He fell until he landed on a different surface. He was now sitting in a chair inside a small room. His hands and feet were tied down to his seat and his mouth was gagged with a dusty cloth.

He struggled around, then became tired so he gave up. He tried to scream, but the sound was only muffled nonsense. The door of the room creaked open, the same creak as he had heard on the deck of the Pearl, and a dark figure slowly crept through the doorway. It approached Jack, came right up to him and placed a chillingly cold hand on his shoulder. Jack looked to the figure's free hand and saw a shiny gleam of metal. There was no mistaking it, it was a razor.

He turned his head up quickly in terror to face his captor, so frightened that sweat was dripping from his forehead and rolling down his face. He recognized the captor as noneother than the horrifying Captain Barbossa whom he could have sworn was dead. Barbossa lifted the hand holding the razor up, gazed at it thoughtfully, then smiled at Jack. Jack wriggled in his entrapment and let out cramped and muffled screams, but it was too late to escape. Barbossa was bringing the razor to Jack's throat.

With one swift motion, Barbossa slid the razor's sharp edge across the tender flesh of Jack's throat, slicing it open immediately and almost effortlessly. The crimson blood began to rush from the laceration, soaking Jack's lifeless body with its thick, syrupy texture... Barbossa threw back his head and let out a long wave of maniacal laughter as Jack's body hung limp, tied up to the chair.

Laughing and laughing... limp body... blood everywhere...

Jack quickly sprung from his pillow, sitting up in bed. He was breathing hard and sweating from every pore on his body. He took a moment to calm himself down from the nightmare which he had just experienced, then lay himself down on his back once again. He stared up at the ceiling, still panting, and felt his neck just to be sure that it was a dream.

As terrifying as the dream might have seemed, this had not been his first encounter with that monstrosity. After his defeat of Barbossa, he'd had the dream recurring for the longest of times. He thought it would never go away. But eventually, the dream began coming less and less and soon enough he had forgotten all about the whole nasty old thing. But now it was back. And he knew exactly why. It was because of the mountain climb. Seeing those terrible words again had provoked his mind to start up the reoccurrence once more. And now, night after night, he'd have to watch himself die at the hands of his worst enemy and there was nothing he could do about it.

He'd have to watch himself die.


	5. Chapter 5

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5

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Nicole sat up in her bed, stretched out and yawned. She slowly pushed the covers off of her legs and slipped out of the bed, throwing caution to not make any noise. She knew all the spots on the ship that creaked and groaned and she made sure to step on these points, for this was not the time to be caught out of bed. She was putting her plan in action.

She made her way over to the small, circular window at the end of the room and peered out. She could see the sun beginning to rise, but it was not completely woken from its slumber yet which meant that it was fairly early in the morning and she had some time. Still cautious with her footing, she wandered out of her cabin and down the hall, heading for the ship's exit: the gangplank.

Upon arrival at the gangplank, to her dismay she saw that it was not out and had been put back in spot because they were soon going to be leaving the island and no longer needed it. Unfortunately, Nicole needed it right now.

She reached her hands out and fiddled around with the rope wrapped around a lever, the device holding the gangplank in its spot. All of a sudden, the rope swung off the lever and the gangplank went crashing down, splashing the shallow water of the island's shore.

Nicole gasped, covering a hand over her mouth. She looked all around, waiting for everyone to come out of their cabins, find her fiddling with the gangplank and punish her. She imagined it in her mind over and over. But after some minutes, no one had appeared. Apparently the noise had not woken anyone. What a relief!

Wearing only a flowing nightgown, hardly the apparel for exploring, she made her way down the sloped gangplank. Her feet were bare and the wood against her skin was uncomfortable and splintery. When she reached the island's shore, she winced at the feeling of the murky water between her toes. Also, there were hundreds of little stones and pebbles at the bottom of the bank and they were poking her already hurting feet with a fury.

With two-thirds of her nightgown completely soaked with the ocean's liquid, she dragged herself onto the sands of the island and began walking through the woods. The tree branches slapped her in every direction as she passed through and bugs bit her, but she did not care. She was on a mission and would stop at nothing.

She was headed for the other side of the island. She had only been there once before and that had been on the mysterious mountain climb she had taken the other day with the crew. But the coordinates were still as clear as ever in her mind.

Then, as she pushed the last tree branches out of her way, she saw it. It was where she had planned to go some hours ago in her cabin and now that she was actually here in person there was no turning back. She wanted to know the words of the flies and now she would. She hoped.

She walked towards Akimbo's cabin with pride. She couldn't believe she was doing this, but she was. Nicole stood in front of the sealed door and lifted up a hand to knock. But before she knocked, she paused a moment. Did she really want to do this? Was she crazy? Akimbo was a very dangerous man and perhaps might kill her for disturbing him. Did she want to take that risk for a bunch of stupid words?

Yes. She did. So she offered a polite little knock on Akimbo's door and waited. But there was no answer. Her heart sunk a bit, nevertheless she did not give up. Nicole swallowed nervously and pounded on the door this time.

She listened intently for any sign of presence in the cabin, then heard some faint, muffled creaks, footsteps and a groan come from the innards of the structure. Nicole waited eagerly for Akimbo to answer the door, wondering what was in store for her. She had no idea how it would go. All she could do was pray that she would come out of this alive.

The muffled footsteps grew closer and Nicole suddenly realized that Akimbo was right on the other side of the door. What was she thinking? How could she possibly think that this was a good idea? She had to get away!

The door began to slowly creak open and Nicole bolted in the direction of the woods. But she had not been quick enough; Akimbo saw her. She looked behind her shoulder and saw Akimbo standing in the doorway staring at her coldly through slitted eyes. She stopped running and stood still in her spot. She stared back at Akimbo, knowing that he held the exact information that she wanted.

Nicole bit her lip and started back to Akimbo's cabin. He was silent, still watching her from the doorway. When she came back to the spot in front of the door she had been occupying previously, she stopped. She looked at Akimbo. She had never seen him from this close up. She realized that he was even more frightening when you were closer to him.

He was of a darker skin tone than all of Jack's crew and he must have been about six and a half feet tall. His eyes were an unfriendly black-color. His head was absent of any hair. There were arrays of various menacing tattoos on his biceps. But he did not appear to be old, though. He looked to be around the age of thirty.

"H-H-H-Hi," Nicole said in a wavering tone.

Akimbo stared at her with his black slits of eyes. It was a stare to kill. Nicole recoiled a bit, but did not run off again. "Umm, my name's Nicole."

He grunted.

"Uh, may I come in please?"

Akimbo blinked at her several times, confused.

Nicole realized that she had never heard the man speak before, and perhaps he did not speak English. She took this into mind and pointed to herself. "I Nicole. Niiii-coooole." She pointed to the cabin. "Maaaay I cooooome inside your caaaaabin?" She pointed back and forth between her and the cabin. "I go in cabin?"

He looked at her distastefully, rolled his eyes and opened his mouth. "Why are you here?" He said in perfect English.

Nicole began to blush, feeling embarrassed for thinking he did not know to speak. "Well, if you let me inside, I'll tell you all about this presence."

Akimbo stood blocking the entrance still. He looked Nicole up and down, then shrugged and moved aside.

"Thank you," She said and walked past him through the doorway. She surveyed the innards of the room and noticed how small it was. It was very dank and a bit dirty and there was only a makeshift bed, table and chairs and a small countered area. The cabin was lined with bamboo and wild grasses and straw. There was one small rectangular hole cut into the wall that was a window. She wondered how someone could possibly live in there, then considered her own cabin upon the Black Pearl and decided that Akimbo had it better than she did.

She pulled a chair out from the table and sat down. Akimbo stood, still at the doorway, and turned so he was facing Nicole. He leaned back against the wall and stared in her direction.

"Come sit down with me," Nicole said, gesturing to the empty chair across from her.

Akimbo reluctantly made his way over and sat down, wanting this to be over as soon as possible. He hated people. He didn't even know why he had let this little hussy into his living quarters in the first place.

Nicole cleared her throat, totally oblivious to the thoughts Akimbo was thinking of her, and placed her hands on the table. "I'm here because... well you see... you have some information that I would like to know."

Akimbo looked at her sourly. "And what's that?"

"Uh well, yesterday when we were climbing the mountain on the other side of the island--"

"I can't tell you."

Nicole frowned. "You don't even know what I'm going to ask! Just let me finish."

Akimbo grunted.

"Yesterday on the mountain, when those dreadful flies came. I think they spelled something out. I'm sure of it. What did they spell out?"

"I can't tell you."

Nicole scoffed at him. "Yes you can! Geez, what's wrong with everyone? Have you been talking to Jack? He says the same thing."

Akimbo's ears widened. "Jack Sparrow?"

"Yes. He's just horrible! I can't stand him. If he wasn't so good looking..."

"You hate Sparrow?"

"Well, not really hate. But I highly dislike him."

"I hate Sparrow too."

"Yeah. He's just so pressing! Always has to have things his way. And he thinks so highly of himself. It's just sickening."

"Yes... yes... and he's very irritating."

"Yeah. Hey, you know what? You're not such a bad guy afterall. I don't see why Jack told us to stay away from you. You're very pleasant."

"Uh... thanks... you're not so bad, yourself. Jack probably told you that because he knows I hate him. And he knows that I'll tell the bad truths about him if you spoke to me."

Nicole nodded in agreeance, forgetting about the reason she had some here in the first place. She was actually enjoying herself here. "You've told me nothing I don't already know, anyway." She laughed.

A crooked sort of smile began on Akimbo's face. He didn't really know how to smile because he had never had the opportunity to do so. He loosened up a bit, and placed his hands on the table as well.

"So, tell me. How did you come upon living out here? Don't you have any family or anything?"

Akimbo shook his head. "No. No family. They all were killed in a fire. We lived on the shoreline of England. When I was three, there was a fire and everyone was murdered by the flames. I ran out of the flames and passed out next to the water. The tide came in and picked me up on some of the wood from the wreckage and while I was passed out I floated out all the way to this island. Then I woke up here. And I've lived in this spot since."

Nicole listened to Akimbo's story with understanding. When he was finished, she looked at him with sympathetic eyes. "Oh, that's just terrible!" She placed her a hand over his on the table. "You're so brave for withstanding that ordeal."

Akimbo had never made contact with a human unless he was hurting them. He flinched when her hand touched his, nevertheless let it stay. He looked down at the pair of hands, then looked up at Nicole. He looked at her hair, her nose, her mouth. And then his gaze stopped and remained focused on her eyes.

Nicole saw him staring at her eyes, felt a bit uncomfortable. She looked at his own eyes and could swear they were lighter than she had seen before.

They sat there in silence, hands intertwined, looking at one another's eyes until Nicole's focus shifted to the makeshift window behind Akimbo and saw that the sun was fully risen. Nicole gulped and removed her hands from Akimbo's. "I have to go now. I'm sorry." She jumped from her chair, dashed out of the cabin and began running back through the woods, not allowing Akimbo to say anything. Akimbo sat, sulking to himself.

Nicole ran, reaching the shore and carefully mounting the gangplank. She sealed it shut and began down the hall to her cabin, panting from her run. What had just happened back there?


	6. Chapter 6

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6

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As Nicole walked through the hallway, others began coming out from their cabins and passing her. She had just made it back at the right time because everyone was waking up and heading down to the dining hall to have breakfast. She decided she'd join them, and headed in the direction the others were taking rather than the way back to her cabin.

Jack rolled, groggily, from his bed and stood up. He swayed a bit, then caught his balance. He had only gotten a bit more than an hour of sleep due to the disturbing dream and the fear of its recurrence. Slightly hindered by his lack of sleep, Jack was not all _there_ at the moment. He grabbed from his dresser whatever he could and walked out of the cabin, dressing in the attire he had chosen. Unfortunately, not all of it was entirely suitable for the breakfast table.

Jack reached the dining hall and stood in the doorway, observing his crew. The crew returned the observation, noticing Jack was wearing slippers, a robe, his tri-cornered hat, a large golden chain around his neck with a dangling Sapphire, his pistol belt and sword sheath and his vest (which had been placed over the robe).

Jack raised his hand and snapped his fingers at the crew. "If I were smart I'd keep me eyes to meself."

The crew turned their heads away immediately and continued their meaningless banter. Jack walked from the doorway and entered the dining hall, taking a seat at the table. Gibbs was situated next to him and Gibbs' granddaughter, Nicole, in front of him.

Jack helped himself to a portion of breakfast and ate.

"Errr... Jack..." Gibbs began.

Jack looked over at him. "Yes?"

"I know I don't mind it in the least, but if you play dress up the others might think yer a little bit nuts."

Jack frowned at Gibbs and resumed his breakfast eating.

"So. How did you sleep, Jack?" Nicole asked.

Jack looked up from his plate and at Nicole uneasily, wondering if she somehow knew of his sleeping troubles and had asked this in spite. "Just fine... Just fine, my dear," He lied.

Nicole let out a long breath of relief. She had asked, wondering if Jack had heard her mishap with the gangplank but apparently he hadn't. "That's nice."

Jack stuck his tongue out at her reply, foolishly.

Nicole smiled. "So..."

"So?"

"Uhh... I was wondering what you think of the nice man who lives on this island, Akimbo."

Jack furrowed his brow. "Akimbo? Don't even dare go near that beast. He's awful. Terrible. I hate even mentioning his name."

"Why can't we ever visit him? He seems lonely."

"How would you know if he's lonely or not? You've only been in his presence once and that was hardly enough to judge his entire character. Just keep away from him and it'll do us all good."

"Okay, Jack," Nicole replied. She giggled to herself, thinking of her forbidden visit to Akimbo just minutes before.

"What's so funny?"

"Aside from your ghastly dressing habits? Nothing."

Jack scoffed, picked up his plate and utensils and standing. He loaded the plate up with another portion of breakfast, then made for the doorway of the hall. He turned to his disrespectful crew. "It's a fashion statement," he stated, then left.


	7. Chapter 7

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7

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After spending yet another day working on the hole in the Pearl's hull, the opening had managed to become even bigger thanks to the numbskull crew members Jack had to work with. They'd have to stay anchored at the island for another day at least. And that happened to be one more day that Jack wished he didn't have to stay for.

Late at night Nicole snuck off of the ship again, making sure not to cause any fuss with the gangplank this time. She wallowed through the woods, her shadow in the glow of the moonlight following eagerly behind her. At last she reached the familiar little hut and approached its doorway. She knocked ordinarily on the door and in a toned down voice called, "Akimbo?"

Akimbo opened the door, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He regarded her with the same menacing look he always usually held.

"Oh, did I wake you? I'm sorry."

Akimbo grunted. "It's okay."

Nicole extended her hand and took Akimbo's in hers. "Come for a walk with me," She said and tugged him forward.

Nicole let go of his hand and he came out of the cabin and shut the door behind him. He didn't know why he was doing this. He had been fishing all day and was extremely tired. He should have declined because he needed rest. But he hadn't and now he was walking around the island with this strange girl. A mischievous smile came upon Nicole's face. "Guess what Jack said about you."

Akimbo frowned. "What."

"He said that you're an awful, terrible beast and I shouldn't mess with you." Nicole giggled and Akimbo began to laugh. "Said he can't even stand mentioning your name!" She let out a roar of laughter.

Akimbo laughed again. "Well, the feeling's mutual then."

They shared a few more laughs, then all the laughter died down and there was silence. They reached the path which led up the mountain and began to ascend its length. Reaching the top of the mountain, they stopped and stood. Nicole walked forward, leaving Akimbo behind. She walked towards the clearing of the mountain where the hideous flies had once spread their message but now were nowhere in sight. She looked out at the horizon, as Akimbo had on that day, and gasped at its beauty. The moon was nearly full and was simply breathtaking, holding a magnificent aura of colors that could not even begin to be described.

"Look at it... it's gorgeous," Nicole admired.

Akimbo grunted and began forward. He stopped next to Nicole and stood, staring out at the night sky.

Nicole continued to look at the moon and horizon. "It's sort of unbelievable that something so stunning can actually exist." She looked over at Akimbo and saw he was not looking out at the sky, but in a different direction. She looked up at his eyes and placed a hand on his cheek tenderly. She realized that he had been studying her rather than the wonders of nature. Her hand continued to touch his face. They were both holding their gaze upon eachother.

She held her touch like that for a moment longer, then began to slowly pull his face to hers. There was no resistance, he let himself be drawn in willingly. Their eyes on one another, their faces stood only inches apart. Slowly, their lips came together and melted mutually as one. It was a shared feeling like no other. She placed her other hand at the nape of his neck and there they stood, bonded, enthralled in passion atop the mountain under the glow of the moonlight.

At the exact moment their lips met, Jack sprung up from the covers of his bed on the Black Pearl, recovering from his nightmare. The was no doubt about it, the dream was beginning to become a reoccurrence once more.

It had begun.


	8. Chapter 8

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8

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"No! Don't pull on that board!" Jack yelled at Crimp who was trying to wedge out a piece of the wood sticking out the hole in the hull.

Crimp stopped and looked up at Jack. "Eh? Why?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Because that board is holding all the other boards in place and well... think of the game 'Pick-up Sticks'. What happens when you pull the wrong stick out from the batch?"

Kursar raised his eyes from the hole and looked at Jack. His hand shot up in the air and he squirmed around impatiently. "Ooh! I know! I know!"

"Yes. I know you know, Kursar, but let's give Crimp a chance at getting it himself."

Kursar frowned and put his hand down sadly. He looked back down at the hole, disappointed.

Crimp scratched his head. "Hmm... uh... oh, I dunno."

Jack shook his head in shame. "What happens is that all the other sticks fall away as well and then you lose the game."

"Lose the game!" Crimp exclaimed, completely shocked. "I dun wanna lose the game!"

Jack smiled. "Then don't pull on that board."

"Aye, Aye, Captain!"

"Uh... yes. Now take the hammer and add a few more support boards across the beams so they'll be nice and strong. And Kursar, you grab the other hammer and make sure all the nails are banged in properly. If they aren't, remove them and add new ones."

Kursar and Crimp stared at Jack blankly. "Can you both handle that?"

"Aye, Aye, Captain!" They both shouted in unison.

Jack turned away. "I need-- uh... I'm going to go get a drink. I'll be back."

"Aye, Aye, Captain!"

Jack shuddered and walked away as quickly as he could to the kitchen. Upon arrival, he approached the counter and slammed his hand down. "I need rum!" He called, hitting the counter over and over again. "Hurry!" The cook rushed to the keg, filled a mug and handed it to Jack, nervously.

Jack chugged the entire glass and slammed it down on the counter. "Re-fill!" The cook repeated the process and handed the mug to Jack. He drank half, then trudged away back down the hall in the direction of the fixing site of the hole. By the time he returned to the site, the mug was empty and he put it down on the ground.

He observed the work Kursar and Crimp had done in the short period he had left and saw that it had gone not as bad as he had thought it would be when he came back. He thought that maybe, just maybe they'd be able to leave that day. But perhaps it was just wishful thinking.

Or maybe it wasn't. After an hour, Jack inspected the damaged area of the hull and saw that it was looking in pretty good condition, better than it had looked on the previous attempts of fixing. But looks weren't everything. Of course something could look good and then completely fall apart. That's why Jack was going to test it for durability.

He did every test he knew of and the patch had lasted throughout all. So it had both essential features necessary to being sturdy afterall: looks and stability. Jack seriously considered the fact that they might actually get to leave the horrible island, then decided that it was better not to get his hopes up and set himself up only for disappointment.

There was one final test to check if the hull was strong enough to last on the ocean, though. The test of trying it out on the ocean itself, of course. If he wanted to leave, he'd have to try that test first.

"Okay Crimp, Kursar. You can go back to your cabins now. I don't need your assistance any longer."

Crimp and Kursar smiled at Jack, then walked past him and disappeared somewhere into the ship's innards. Jack disappeared as well but in a different direction; down below to the mechanism control room. He made sure everything was all in working order, then readied the ship for leaving.

Finished, he walked up to the deck and headed to the steering area. He placed himself behind the wheel and pulled on the throttle. He saw no reason in telling the crew of the ship what he was doing. There was no need in disappointing everyone. He placed his hands on the wheel and turned it to the left. The ship slowly lurched forward, then stopped, held back by the weight of the anchor that was keeping the ship in place. Jack pushed the throttle in the opposite direction and the ship lurched backwards and stopped, obstructed by the anchor once more.

Jack took his hands off of the wheel and pushed the throttle in its idle position. He backed away from the steering and moved across the deck, planning to return to the mechanism control room so he could stop the ship's capability. When everything was all in normal order again, he returned to the deck. He stood, pondering on the situation. Everything was perfect condition, the hull had passed all of its administered tests and was able to withstand the ocean. They could leave!

Nicole came to the mouth of the hall leading onto the deck and saw Jack standing. She walked toward him briskly and touched him on the shoulder. Startled, Jack shifted around to face his intruder. "Nicole! You gave me a fright. What is it that you want?"

"Everything was shaking before in my cabin. Jack, were you sailing the ship?"

"Yes. I was testing it out. Crimp and Kursar... they might look dumb... act dumb... even_ talk _dumb, but they sure can do a pretty mean job of fixing things. The hull's in perfect shape now." Jack looked past Nicole and stared out at the blue ocean waters nostalgically. "Oh, I'm so excited. We'll be leaving this revolting island tonight. I can't wait."

Nicole's eyes went wide. "What?"

Jack turned his gaze away from the ocean and back to Nicole. "The ship is in working order once more. We are leaving tonight."

"But we can't!"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "And why not?"

"Because! Because... because... because there are these little tomatoes that grow here and they taste really good and I like them."

"Well then we'll pick a bunch before we go."

"And... and there's this little bird whom I play with."

"We'll take him along as well. Really, though, we are leaving. You can take whatever you want from here, but by sunrise tomorrow we'll be somewhere else. Now, I must not be bothered. I have more important things to attend to. Like informing the crew of the wonderful news." He gently moved Nicole out of his way, walked to the hall and disappeared from view. Nicole was left alone, as usual, sulking due to her newest dilemma.


	9. Chapter 9

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9

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That afternoon, after hearing Jack's overjoyed announcement that they were to be leaving the island soon enough, Nicole ran down the gangplank and onto the island, in full sunlight, able to be seen by anyone daring to glance in her direction. The thought of someone seeing her now was the least of her cares at the moment. She was focused on things of more meaning.

She ran through the woods, the branches whipping against her face, arms and legs. The breeze caught her long hair and blew it up, locks trailing behind her head as she moved. She came to the end of the forest path and saw Akimbo holding an axe, chopping down a tree near his cabin. Nicole hurried towards him just as he was lifting the axe in the air to bring it down on the tree's trunk. In the corner of his eye he saw movement and slowly brought the axe back to its resting position. He turned around to face Nicole. The axe hung limply in one hand next to his thigh.

Out of breath, Nicole's chest heaved up and down quickly as she panted for air. Once under control again, she looked at Akimbo longingly. "We're leaving soon."

Akimbo looked back at Nicole with a puzzled expression.

"The only reason we hadn't left before was because there was a big hole in our ship's hull. Well, now it's fixed and stupid Jack says we're leaving tonight. Knowing him it'll probably be earlier than that, though."

Akimbo frowned.

"Akimbo... I... I think it was some sort of sign or something. An omen. The hull being broken, undermining our ability to leave. It was fate that we met."

"Fate?"

"Yes. And now I'm leaving and it's so devastating! I knew this day would come... but I just wasn't ready for it. We were meant to be together."

Akimbo stared at Nicole, astonished.

Tears began forming in Nicole's eyes. "Well, I should be going now. They might get suspicious as to my whereabouts." She took a step forward, kissed him softly on the mouth, then turned away. "Goodbye." She said and began slowly back to the woods. She turned back one last time, looked at Akimbo for a brief moment more, then turned around for good and did not look back. Her heart was crushed. As she mounted the gangplank and stepped into the innards of the ship, she slowly trudged up to the deck. She walked across the boards of wood until she reached the side railing, then stopped and looked down at the ocean waters that lay before her.

After a few minutes passed, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Nicole turned around to see Esmarelda, one of the ship's wenches standing behind her. "Are you all right, dear?" Esmarelda asked.

Nicole sniffed and wiped away a tear. "I don't know."


	10. Chapter 10

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10

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The sun, once bright and vigorous now was a fading taint in the distant sky. The hour was growing late. The crew had all just finished their last dinner they would have on the island, sort of a celebration supper. It was that to Jack, anyway. He couldn't be more happy to leave the desolate piece of rock behind forever so they could explore the fruits of paths unknown.

As the crew began to clear out from the dining hall, all heading for the one single exit the room retained, everyone pushing and shoving trying to get out as quickly as they could because they were so excited that they would be leaving, Nicole heard Jack, through the incessant chatter of the crew, proclaim that with this final meal finished, the ship would be put to float.

He then called for some helpers to lift the anchor. Good old Kursar and Crimp volunteered for that task.

Nicole stood in a corner of the room, watching the crew clear out in their own unorganized fashion. She wanted no part in trying to squeeze through the tiny opening of the dining hall with all those drunk men who would most likely, at any given moment, cop a feel or two on one of the few females aboard the vessel. No. She could wait. She had enough patience to last until the room was cleared out.

Esmarelda approached cornered-in Nicole. "How ya holdin' up?"

Nicole shrugged. "I can't believe we're actually leaving."

Esmarelda nodded. "Yeah. It's a real shame. I had gotten to taking a liking to the island. Too bad we couldn't stay longer."

"Yeah. Too bad is right."

"So what do you have planned for tonight?"

Nicole considered the idea, then decided she had nothing in mind planned. "Nothing really, I guess."

"Well, the girls and I are 'avin' a card game down in the cellar. You can join us if you want."

The girls... 'The girls' was code-word for 'The other hookers'. Nicole hadn't really intended on spending the night with a bunch of disease-riddled strumpets. Nevertheless, she smiled at Esmarelda and nodded. "Yeah, okay. I'll make sure to pay you a visit if I find nothing else to do tonight."

"Great! I hope you come by. We have a great pot this time. Winner takes Jack Sparrow himself."

Nicole's mouth went wide in disgust. Not because she wouldn't mind winning the pot herself, because she certainly would fancy that. But the fact that Jack used these... ladies of the night... and frequently! Well, she had to expect it, anyway. Everyone used their 'service'. Even some of the hookers themselves. That's why they were placed on the ship.

"Ooh... pretty enticing," Nicole replied, half meaning it.

"Well, the pot can be yours if you come by."

"I'll try. No guarantees, though."

"Sure. If you don't come this time, there's always the next. The girls and I play cards every so often. It's just not as so often that there's such a valuable pot up for grabs. Anyways, I'll see you around."

Esmarelda turned around and started for the doorway, which was certainly less crowded than before, but there were still some men taking their slow, sweet time to vacate the dining hall. Nicole did not even want to make eye contact with one, let alone walk behind one.

Esmarelda walked between a few men, adjusting her quick pace to meet that of the drunk men who were dawdling in front of her. She looked at Nicole, raised up and hand and waved to her. Nicole reluctantly waved back.

One of the drunks decided to pinch Esmarelda's bottom. She jumped, startled, and laughed, continuing to wave to Nicole. Then she and the group of drunks disappeared from view as they walked out of the dining hall and down the main hall.

Nicole shuddered and walked to the doorway herself now that the hall was empty. As she exited the hall, she muttered under her breath, "And that's why I wait for the hall to be cleared out." She shuddered once more, then continued down the main hall until she reached her cabin. She twisted the door knob, stepped inside and shut the door behind her. Nicole walked to her tiny window and looked out at the ocean. She heard, vaguely, shouts in the distance coming from outside the ship.

She pushed her window open as far as it would go (about two inches) and listened intently to the shouts. There was no mistaking Jack's voice. He was instructing the men on how to successfully return the anchor to its position aboard the ship. By the sounds of it, it wasn't going too well.

"No! What are you doing? You're going to damage the deck! Stop that! Hey! That's not how it works!"

_Well, serves him right_, Nicole thought. She hoped that the anchor would get stuck or something. Anything. As long as they couldn't leave.

"Okay! Good! It's going up now!" Jack called.

Nicole pulled the window closed in one swift motion and crossed her arms over her chest, disappointed. They were leaving. There was nothing that could prevent it from happening. She sighed, uncrossed her arms and walked to the door. She opened it, walked into the hall and closed the door behind her. Nicole walked to the stairway that lead down to the ship's cellar. Perhaps she'd win Jack in the hooker card game and then show him a rowdy ol' time. Maybe so rowdy that it would become painful. That would be pleasant.

She began down the stairs, came to the landing which marked the middle floor that lay just above the cellar floor. She stopped, seeing the mid-deck and its view of the island. She walked forward and stood before the railing looking out at the island, now dark and hardly visible.

Suddenly, she was heavily jolted to the side. She grabbed onto the railing to keep herself from falling down. With the jolt, the ship was in motion. Moving forward, slowly, away from the island. She could feel the churning waters rubbing up against the boat vibrating under her feet. She gripped onto the railing tighter, the skin on her fingertips and joints turning white. She watched as the island passed by before her eyes almost dream-like. Tears began to stream down her face, the cold night air making her wet cheeks sting distressingly.

The tears blurred her vision and her view on the island doubled, then quadrupled, then the tears were too thick to make any viewing from. She lifted the bottom of her shirt and dried the tears away with the material. Her normal vision returned and she continued back to the stairwell so she could go down to meet up with the whores in hopes of winning her captain's body.

The stairwell was deserted, as it always was. The lighting was very poor and Nicole could barely see where she was going. No one usually went down to the cellar except the female 'workers'. And now with all the 'workers' being entertained by their little game, the stairwell would surely be empty. Nicole slowly walked on the landing and began to descend the stairs. She had almost reached the second landing, when she was pushed down by an attacker. She tried to get up but the attacker was on top of her. She opened her mouth to scream but the attacker placed a hand over her mouth, stifling her cries. She was trapped!


	11. Chapter 11

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11

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She struggled under her attacker, then tired herself out and stopped. The attacker bent his head down close to hers off to the side where her ear was and paused like that for a moment. Nicole was frightened to death and didn't want his face anywhere near hers. She just wanted to be left alone.

He slowly removed his hand from over her mouth. She did not scream, knowing it would only result in further corruption. He parted her hair behind her ear, as though preparing it for something. Then he leaned forward further and whispered, "It's me."

Nicole furrowed her brow. "What? Who? Get off of me!"

"Shhh..." He said softly.

Nicole squinted her eyes in the darkness, trying to see who was on top of her. Her eyes moved blindly over the attacker's face. Then when she came to the eyes, she saw a tiny glow from the dim lamps in the stairwell and realized who it was.

"Akimbo?"

She could barely see him nodding.

"Akimbo, how did you get on the ship!" She exclaimed, amazed, forgetting how scared she had been only moments before. Her evening was looking brighter already.

"I snuck on."

"_You snuck on_!"

"Shhh!"

"Oh... sorry. You snuck on? Just for me?" A smile began forming on her face. "That is the most sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me! Akimbo, you're amazing!" She pulled his face to hers and kissed him all over. She was feeling wild and in the moment.

Then something came to her mind and she pushed him away. "Wait a second... _you snuck on the ship_!" She said, aghast. "Where will you stay? What if someone finds you? What if _Jack_ finds you?"

Akimbo shrugged. Obviously he hadn't really thought the plan out that well before going through with it. He had never really been one for thinking about things before doing them.

"Well, I guess we're just going to have to hide you somewhere, then--"

A swarm of female cackles coming from the cellar filled the stairwell, interrupting Nicole.

"Oh, my. That's the card game with 'The girls' that I was supposed to go to. Well, who cares about that now. The prize was a load of rubbish anyways."

"What was the prize?"

"A night with Jack Sparrow."

They both shared a cackle of their own.

"Um, well I guess we should get out of here before the girls come wandering up here and find you. Wouldn't want that to happen."

Akimbo blinked several times.

Nicole cleared her throat. "I think you're going to have to get off of me first."

"Oh," Akimbo said, dumbfounded. He quickly removed himself from Nicole and stood. He reached out a hand to her, she grabbed onto it and he pulled her up.

Nicole quickly mounted the stairs and walked to the doorway which led to the main hall. She peeked through the opening, making sure the coast was clear. When she was sure that the corridor was empty, she motioned for Akimbo to come forward. He mounted the stairs as well and placed himself on Nicole's side. They walked through the hall, scouting out the area for any possible intruders on their space. Luckily no one intruded and they made it down the hall safely.

At the end of the hall was another doorway which led to the hall which contained all of the crew's sleeping quarters. As they walked through the door, Nicole came upon an idea. "I know the perfect spot to hide you. No one ever goes there. It's excellent."

"And where is that?"

"My cabin."

Akimbo smiled and they continued, still on the lookout, to the end of the hall where Nicole's cabin was located. As they passed by the door Nicole stopped, as did Akimbo. She twisted the door's knob open, let herself and Akimbo inside, then shut and locked it.

"I know it's small, but it reminds me of your little hut and I think you'll like it here."

Akimbo shrugged, indifferently.

"Uh... I can give you some blankets and you can sleep in that corner over there," Nicole said, pointing to a corner of the room.

Akimbo nodded to himself.

Nicole approached the man and stood right in front of him. She looked up at Akimbo, thoughtfully. "Why did you take such a big risk for me?"

"I don't know. I guess I thought about what you said. You know... about us being meant to be together. And when I really thought about it, I couldn't see anything wrong with it. So I decided that it would be a waste not to pursue it."

Nicole smiled admiringly at him. "Yes. That's it exactly. But what you've done... it's... I don't know. I'm speechless."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"It's a good thing, you fool," She teased, rubbing her hand along his broad chest. "You know..." She began to giggle. "... Jack told me I could take whatever I wanted from the island. Do you think he'll be mad at what I chose?"


	12. Chapter 12

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12

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Nicole seated herself on her small bed, her legs folded in front of her. She patted the bed with a hand, signaling for Akimbo to join her. He climbed onto the bed, hoping he wouldn't break it, and sat next to her. She threw a blanket over their legs, covering them. Then they proceeded to watch the tranquilly moving sky through the small window, surveying all of the stars and the constellations which they formed.

The star gazing broke into a more exciting, and certainly a more pleasurable activity; their mouths pulsating together, their tongues fluttering fixedly. They were against one another like a pack of hungry dogs in the presence of fresh meat. Nicole pulled him closer, wanting their moments to never end. She had not felt so wonderful in all of her life. Nothing could spoil her fun.

They fell asleep, curled up under the blanket on the bed, quite contented with the turn of events.

Oblivious to his new ship passenger, Jack lay asleep in his bed. He let out a few whimpers in his sleep, unaware that he had even uttered said whimpers. All he was focused on at the moment was what was currently flowing through his sleep-absorbed mind...

He had reached the part of his dream where he was swaying around in front of the fire with the big ugly people who wanted to hurt him. He hated this part. He had dreamed the dream time and time again and every time, on the contrary to the custom that after you've experienced something so many times you become used to it and simply regard it casually, Jack was never able to come to terms with this horrible nightmare. He refused to accept that he would forever have to live with it. He _refused_.

He felt a wave of nausea come over him, it became hard for him to keep balance. He swayed back and forth, collapsed on the ground and began falling in the tunnel of nothingness. He fell into the chair inside the small room, his hands and feet tied down, his mouth gagged. He struggled, tired out and gave up. He tried to scream, emitted muffled nonsense. The door of the room creaked open. Barbossa had arrived. Hooray. He approached Jack, came to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Jack saw the shiny gleam of metal in Barbossa's free hand: the razor. The dream just got better and better with each moment passing.

Barbossa looked at the razor, smiled at Jack. Jack wriggled and let out muffled screams. Barbossa was bringing the razor to Jack's throat! Closer. Closer! The tip of the blade was digging into his flesh.

Jack shook awake in a panic with a hoarse cry. He would not let the dream go any further. He had seen this show before, yes he had, and it wasn't pretty. This time it had felt too real, though. Much too real.

Jack's hands quickly went clawing for his throat in a frenzy. He held his neck, breathing in deeply. In and out, in and out. Trying to return his calm. He felt along the skin of his neck, trying to find any impurities. Along the middle, he could swear he felt something odd. Like a fine line along the range of his throat.

He got out of bed, lit a candle and placed it in a holder. He took the candle holder along with him across the room to the small mirror which hung on the wall opposite his bed. It was the only mirror on the entire ship and it was his. Others had to inspect themselves with spoons and other such utensils. On the other hand, if they were interested in using Jack's mirror, they had to ask him. Most likely, if he didn't particularly like the person he would either deny them the use or if he was in a strange mood he'd have them entertain him with a little song or dance. Those whom he fancied were entitled to all the ganders of themselves in the mirror that their little heart desired... sans embarrassing dance. Consisting of the list of crew he fancied were Nicole, Mr. Gibbs and any of the harlots... except the one with the missing leg. She just freaked him out...

He raised the candle holder up and looked at his reflection in the mirror. He inspected his neck, rubbing the epidermis with his free hand. He was sure that there would be some visible sign of foul play from the dream left over in the real world. But there was not. His neck looked just as ravishing, to him, as ever.

He frowned and trudged back to bed. He blew the candle out and set it down, then wrapped himself up in the bunch of blankets on his bed. The rest of the night he slept soundly, as did Nicole and Akimbo some cabins away.


	13. Chapter 13

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13

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The sun rose in the sky and cast light over the Black Pearl which was currently sailing off somewhere in the ocean. The light touched all of the Pearl's tiny windows which bordered the sides of the ship. Fluorescence shined in through the window of Nicole's cabin, illuminating her delicate face and making it bright.

Feeling the light and finding it unpleasant, Nicole rolled over onto her side, yawned, and buried her face into Akimbo's chest. She rested for a moment, then her head shot up. She sat up, looked at the resting Akimbo in her bed and blinked several times.

Akimbo's eyes fluttered open and he stared at Nicole. He slowly raised.

Nicole placed a hand over her heart, breathing rapidly. "Sorry. I had forgotten you were here. It was just a bit of a shock."

Akimbo held out his arms and pulled Nicole to his body. As he held her she turned her head around and kissed all down his neck and shoulder. She stared him in the eye, then opened her mouth and said, "I'm starved." She hopped off the bed, getting to her feet and walking towards the doorway. She unlocked the door and opened it a few inches.

Nicole peeked out of the opening for some moments, then decided the coast was clear so she opened it fully. She blew a kiss to Akimbo, then left her quarters, shutting the door behind her quietly. She walked silently through the halls, wondering how she would smuggle food back to Akimbo. She was so caught up in her thoughts, she was not even paying attention to where she was walking. She bumped into the hooker with a missing leg, One Legged Sally.

"Ooh! Sorry!" Nicole apologized, patting Sally on the shoulder. Sally grunted at Nicole and hobbled off.

Nicole entered the dining hall and skimmed the long table for Jack Sparrow. She liked being in his presence while he ate so she could annoy him with pointless questions, idiotic stories and best of all: disgusting anecdotes.

She saw an empty seat next to him and smiled. This would be good.

Nicole made her way over to the empty seat next to Jack and sat herself down. "Hey, Jack. How's your morning so far?"

Jack put his fork down and turned to her, distastefully. "Well, it was going alright. Then something came along and took a seat next to me and I think it's all going to be downhill now."

"Hey!" Nicole laughed, punching Jack in a friendly manner on the arm. She looked at his face and noticed that he actually didn't look that well at all. "Jack, you don't look too good. Is there anything wrong?"

"Uhh... no. I've just been having some really terrible nightmares lately."

Nicole nodded. "Ah. I see. Well, you know what they say: don't eat right before you go to bed or else you're visited by very unpleasant dreams."

Jack lifted his fork to his mouth and ate a slice of pancake. "But I _don't_ eat right before I go to sleep..."

Nicole had not touched her plate, but now she had begun shoveling more food on top of it anyway. Jack looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Oh well. Then there's no cure for you." She grabbed her overloaded plate and called off, "Cheerio!"

"Cheerio?" Jack asked, befuddled.

Nicole marched off out of the room. Jack watched her leave, peculiarly. She walked along the halls with the plate until she reached her cabin. She glanced both ways down the hall then opened the door and sneaked in, shutting it behind her. Akimbo looked up at who was intruding and was relieved to see that it was only Nicole. who was brandishing a large plate of food, making his stomach growl as through it sensed that there was food in its presence. Nicole set the plate down on the bed and climbed up to be with Akimbo.

"How'd you get this?" Akimbo asked, curiously.

"Oh... I have my ways."

"No one was suspicious?"

"I'm not sure. But I don't think so..."

They feasted on the platter, enjoying eachother's company.


	14. Chapter 14

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14

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As dinner time rolled around, Nicole stayed with her fellow crew members briefly, then piled her plate up high and made for the dining hall doorway.

Jack watched as she walked to the doorway of the dining hall carrying her filled plate. She had done the same thing that morning with her breakfast. It certainly was odd and Jack intended to find out what exactly was going on with that girl.

Unaware of the thoughts brewing in her captain's head, Nicole continued out and down the hall. She had no idea that a suspicion had risen in the heads of her peers as well. As far as she was concerned, no one had a clue as to what was going on in her life at the moment. And she intended on keeping it that way. Unfortunately, they were already onto her.

Jack yawned at the dinner table and raised from his seat. He was feeling fairly full, and not to mention very sleepy. Somehow the horrible nightmare which captivated his nighttimes was not on his mind at the moment, he had forgotten about it for the time being.

Jack headed off to his cabin, not concerned that it was still an early hour in the evening. His entire body felt heavy, weighed down. He simply wanted to rest his head somewhere and not be bothered. He entered his cabin, shut the door and stepped to his bed. Pulling the covers back, he climbed onto the mattress and replaced the displaced covers over his body. He lay for a minute, his heavy eyelids falling down repetitively, the gap uncovered by the lid becoming smaller and smaller each time until finally his eyes had shut fully. As he was drifting off to sleep, he spoke one final phrase, "She was right. I _am_ going to sleep after eating."

Then his thoughts crowded together into one thick haze and he was asleep, idle in the strange and undeterminable land of dreams. The dense fog of dream clouds parted away and he found himself atop the Pearl's deck. He looked out at the familiar misty twilight and splashing ocean waves and a frown came to his face. Jack jumped at the sound of creaking behind him. He saw the skeleton at the opposite end of the deck. It began lurching forward and he fell off of the ship. He tried to grab onto something. Anything. But he already knew that there was nothing to grab on. For some reason, however, he could not prevail his actions.

He arrived in Crazy-Dark-Land, saw the fire in the distance and began crawling forth. When he got there, warmed himself and saw the Crazy-Dark-Land-Ugly-People, he was hardly surprised. When they began lurching forward he looked at them smugly with a strong loathing.

He read his wordy hands and shook his head, wishing the dream would just be over already. For good. Suddenly he lost balance and collapsed onto the ground. He fell into Barbossa's lair and waited for his anticipated host to arrive. Uncontrollable muffled screams emitted from his gagged mouth and Jack sat there, bored, quite frankly. His body struggled around, then tired itself and conceded. Muffled screams emerged from his mouth once again. Then the man of the hour himself, Barbossa, showed up. Right on time too. Jack's head shifted to regard the razor, then bolted up to look at Barbossa. Boy, this being not able to control yourself thing was really wearing him out.

Barbossa began bringing the razor to Jack's throat. The razor seemed to come down in slow motion. It moved closer and closer to his tender neck until he could feel the cold blade on his skin. Jack shook himself awake, clutching his neck. This had definitely felt more real than the other times. Even the other night's. He got out of bed, found the candle with its holder from the other night and lit the wick. He quickly approached the mirror and held the candle up high, providing the light required for inspecting himself.

Thousands of sexual encounters with One Legged Sally would have frightened him less than he was frightened now. There was a straight red line across his neck, the looks of the tracing of a razor blade. He rubbed his finger along the line and gulped.

What was going on?


	15. Chapter 15

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15

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Jack rubbed his hand along his neck with discomfort at the breakfast table the next morning. Nicole raised from her seat and began away. As she was heading to the hall's exit with her overstuffed plate of breakfast, Jack called out, "Nicole!"

Nicole stopped in her tracks, slowly turned around and looked at Jack at his seat at the table. Oh no... he was onto her. "Yes?" She asked, nervously.

"Nicole... why is it that as of recent you've been eating not a single bite in the dining hall but filling your plate up and then leaving with it? Hm?" All of the crew members sitting at the table were silent and focused their eyes on Nicole, waiting for her answer.

Nicole hated all of their prying eyes. "Uhh..." She began sweating. "Uhh... uh I took your advice when we left the island and I took that little bird whom I told you about with me. He's a feisty one, that bird. A big eater. I have to bring him food or he'll starve."

"Bird, eh?" Jack asked suspiciously. He rubbed his chin pensively. "What did you name the little fellow?"

"What did I name him?" Nicole asked, sweating more. She cleared her throat. "Um... I named him Fred. Fred the bird."

"Fred the bird," Jack repeated. "Fred the bird."

"Yes," Nicole replied. She sucked in a large intake of breath and held it in, waiting for Jack's reply.

"Well, hurry up then. I don't want the poor thing to starve to death."

She let out her long breath and offered Jack a big smile. "No, sir. I won't." She skipped off, happily, all the way back to her cabin. Contented at her escape from Jack's interrogation, she had not focused on keeping an eye out for presence in the halls when she opened her cabin door. Even worse than not looking out for who was around when she accessed the doorway, she had opened the door up, put the plate down on the bed and had plum forgotten to close the darned thing.

Nicole and Akimbo dug into the breakfast, hungrily, as though they had not eaten in weeks.

Esmarelda walked through the cabin hall, on her way to a late breakfast in the dining hall. She had just gotten too caught up in her business work and had lost track of time. She hoped they had not run out of food yet. She had already missed dinner the other night because she had some loose ends to tie up with some of her work and she didn't think she could work another shift without having something to keep her going. She walked along the hall, not really noticing much. All the doors along the hall were closed and had good reason to be. You didn't leave your cabin door open or even unlocked ever. An open or unlocked door gave a personal invitation to anyone aboard and in need of something a free admission to take your possessions.

An open doorway suddenly showed its face along the continuity of the closed doors along the hall and Esmarelda stopped, wondering who in their right mind had just given her such a lovely invitation without asking anything in return. She walked into the open doorway and looked into the room to not only find it filled, but one of the occupancies happened to be a face she had never seen as of yet.

Nicole shoved a piece of bacon into her mouth and chewed. Suddenly she sensed eyes on her and looked up. Her gaze darted to the open doorway and she leapt off of the bed in a frenzy.

Akimbo saw Esmarelda and jumped off the bed and tried his best to squirm his way beneath. His legs hung out, though, as he was too tall to fit under the bed.

Nicole ran out of the room, pushing Esmarelda away from the doorway and slamming the door shut behind her. Out of breath, she took Esmarelda by the shoulders. "What did you see?" She asked, frantically.

"Nuffin' really, deary. What's got you in such a twist?"

"Esmarelda. Promise me to never tell anyone of what you saw in my room. Can you promise me?"

"Yeah, sure. I just don't see what's so--"

"Good." Nicole let go of Esmarelda and in a split second opened the door of her cabin a crack, disappeared, and slammed the door behind her.

Esmarelda scratched her head, confused, then shrugged and continued off to the dining hall. She regretted wasting time at Nicole's. She was sure there would be no breakfast left now. He stomach grumbled, discontentedly, as she continued on.

Nicole pushed her hair out of her face and walked back to the bed, her chest heaving. That had been a close one. _Too_ close. Next time it would be much worse. That's why she had to make sure that there would be no next time. She sat back down on the bed and picked up another piece of bacon. She saw Akimbo's legs sticking out from under the bed.

"It's okay, love. You can come out now," Nicole said, fatigued, chewing on her piece of bacon.

Akimbo removed himself from the depths of the bed and mounted once more. He pouted at her and crossed his arms over his chest. Nicole extended and hand to caress his face, kissed him softly on the mouth. "I'm sorry," she said, sincerely. "It will never happen again."

Akimbo uncrossed his arms and he kissed her himself this time. Nicole laughed and threw the remaining bacon at him.


	16. Chapter 16

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16

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Late that night as Jack was exhausted and thinking about turning over for the evening, there was a knock at his cabin door. He looked at the door and stumbled towards the entry, wondering who could be daring to bother him at such a late hour. It had better be good. He opened the door to see a member of his crew standing opposite him. "Matelot. What is it that you want?" Jack asked, forcing away a yawn that was coming up in his throat.

Matelot placed his hand on the doorframe and leaned against the paneling casually. "Me and the crew boys wanta know where to head this here ship. The course hasn't bin set yet. Where to, cap'n?"

"Ahh... where to?" Jack repeated, asking himself rather than Matelot. Jack shrugged. "It will have to wait until morning as far as I'm concerned."

"But cap'n! We needs to know now!"

"You've already waited this long. A few more hours of waiting won't make a difference. Tell you what, I'll come find you tomorrow when I make my decision and then you can set the course and we'll be off on our merry little way. Savvy?"

"Aye, Aye, cap'n," Matelot said glumly. He walked away and muttered under his breath, "You can blow it out my arse."

"What was that, Matelot?" Jack asked, suspiciously.

"Nuffin'."

Jack shut his door and shrugged. He approached his bed a bit reluctantly. The bed. The vehicle which fueled the twisted imagery that corrupted his mind when in a state of sleep. Perhaps if he slept on the floor the dreams would find the surface too hard to penetrate and just disappear as though they had never been there in the first place.

"As if!" Jack declared aloud, ridiculing himself.

He climbed into bed hoping the dreams would stay away, yet knowing that they wouldn't, and pulled the covers all the way up. The night was very chilly and he didn't want to freeze his little chinny chin chin off. No siree bob.

"I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down," Jack said groggily, snickering at his amusing little memories of childhood stories. "Not by the hairs on my chinny... chin... chin..." Jack added, his speech growing sleepy and flowing off.

After falling asleep, he managed to pull himself out of the dream at the exact moment he had the previous night. The dream was getting too real. It wasn't funny anymore-- Like it ever was!

Jack rubbed his throbbing neck, worried at what he'd find when he looked in the mirror. Unfortunately this was not a fairy tale. He was no wicked witch with a magic mirror that would tell him 'You're the fairest of them all'. No, when he looked up at his neck in the mirror, the line had certainly gotten bigger. It was now an opened gash. There was a small tracing of blood. It wasn't much, but it was enough to scare the holy bejebus out of out of him for the rest of the night. He could not fall back to sleep after something like this! Not ever!

"My God... what's happening?" He asked himself in a hushed whisper.

He paced back and forth along the floor of the room, holding a damp cloth to his wound. He wondered what he could do. He would not be able to hold off sleeping for long. There was just no way. Jack was a sleeper and that was that. He feared falling asleep now, though, for if his head lay upon that pillow, his eyes closed, and he got sent off to dreamland, he could possibly never return. Of all the ways he thought he'd lose his life over the years, he never thought he'd lose it in a dream! If you're going to die, die like a man. Don't die while counting sheep and sucking on your thumb while your tucked in with your blankie.

Jacks eyelids began to feel heavy, droop. The seduction of the goddess of sleep was arousing him, but he wasn't in the mood tonight. He would never be in the mood again. Only the goddess of sleep never took 'No' as an answer.

He stopped pacing and leaned against the wall in the darkness, feeling so sleepy it was unbearable. If he didn't get off of his feet, he'd collapse. Slowly, his back began sliding down the wall until he was sitting down on the floor in the corner. He kept his eyes open, trying to blink the sleep off. It wasn't working. He banged his head against the wall, hoping that pain would keep him awake. It was keeping him awake, alright. It was keeping the occupant of the next cabin awake as well. The occupant of the next cabin banged on the wall for Jack to stop making such a racket and go to sleep. "Ya stop yer bangin', ya fool, or ya goin to get a black eye!" A voice from the next room yelled, partly obstructed by the walls in the way of his and Jack's cabin.

Jack continued to bang his head, as though the man had not just threatened him. "I'm the bloody captain! I'll bang on whatever I want whenever I want!" He called back.

There was a banging on the opposite wall. Apparently, his yelling had woken up the occupant of the next cabin. "Shut yer trap, ya noisy ass!" The other man yelled.

"Never!" Jack yelled in reply, continuing to bang his head against the wall.

"That's it! You shut up or I'm a comin' in there!"

Jack banged his head harder, wanting to make more noise. He felt that if you could sleep without being disturbed by dangerous dreams at night, you didn't deserve to sleep at all. He banged and banged... and banged.

He banged his head so hard that he knocked himself out and his limp body fell over to the side in a state of unconsciousness. Following the few moments of unconsciousness, Jack fell into a deep dark sleep-- Exactly what he was working against. His plan had backfired on him, though, and perhaps this would be the last time he dreamed for good.


	17. Chapter 17

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17

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Drool ran along Jack's chin and dropped off onto his bare hand. At once, he sprung from his slumber, moving to a sitting position against the wall. He blinked several times at the sunlight peeking in through the window and wondered what time it was. He couldn't really remember much from the previous night. Just that at one point he had fallen asleep. He looked down and noticed that he was sitting on the floor rather than in his bed. "That's odd..." He murmured. Jack stood up and stretched, yawning as he did so. He looked around the room, anxious to eat breakfast.

He exited his cabin, marched down the hall and into the dining hall only to find it empty. Jack scratched his head in confusion, trying to think of where he had gone wrong. After some moments, he shrugged and headed over to the kitchen to see the cook. He placed his hands on the counter and leaned all of his weight forward, looking at the room behind the counter which contained all of the ailments, preserves, edibles and rum. His mouth began to water.

"Chef!" Jack hollered. "Chef!" He banged a hand against the counter repetitively.

The nervous cook came out of the food storage room and regarded Jack tensely. "Yes, Cap'n?" She replied.

"Why is breakfast not served yet?"

"Because it was already served about six hours ago."

"What do you mean? You served it earlier than usual?"

"No. I mean that it was served at regular time. Only that you were not there so you missed it."

Jack let out a growl. "Blimey! And no one thought to wake me up! Give me a bottle of rum!" he yelled, throwing his hands up at the cook like a madman.

The cook gave Jack what he had demanded and scoffed at his rude behavior. "Hope it tastes like a horse's ass," she muttered under her breath.

Jack raised an eyebrow at the cook, wondering what she had said, then raised the bottle of rum to his lips and began drinking away. He trundled off from the kitchen, satisfied with his replacement meal and went off in search for Matelot so they could discuss the course the ship was to take.


End file.
